NATCHEZ &8212; When Youth Court Judge John Hudson sees a new face in his courtroom, it&8217;s usually one he never sees there again.

The sentences Hudson hands down are not always jail time or fines, but more frequently an invitation to one of numerous rehabilitation programs the court offers.

&8220;Most first offenders that come in, they learn their lesson,&8221; Hudson said. &8220;They come into court and there are consequences.&8221;

Depending on the nature and frequency of the offense, Hudson sentences teens to community service programs, anger management classes or the closely supervised Adolescent Offender Program.

Teens in AOP meet daily with counselors and take classes on values and behavior. They do community service work and have strict curfews. AOP counselors review their school performance, and their parents even come in for parenting classes.

All the while, the teens are still a part of their community. They live at home, not in jail, and their neighbors, church members and schools play a part in their rehabilitation.

The juvenile justice system in Adams County has been a few steps ahead of the pack for about a decade now. It&8217;s ranked higher than programs in other counties on federal reviews, and its programs have been a model for other towns.

When the Mississippi Juvenile Justice Reform Act went into effect in July, nearly all the requirements were already in place in Adams County.

The idea of AOP versus sending teens away to training school was the heart of the reform act; AOP has been around since the mid-1990s in Natchez.

For the first time in a while, the number of cases coming into youth court is down, Hudson said last week. Though some of it can probably be attributed to the clerical side, he&8217;s not facing a backlog of cases, and said he doesn&8217;t remember a decrease as great as this one in past years.

January and February are typically slow months in the youth court &8212; juvenile crime runs in cycles, he said. There&8217;s more when school&8217;s not in session.

But it also runs in larger cycles.

&8220;It&8217;s connected to juvenile population, and we are entering a time now when juvenile populations are up nationwide,&8221; Hudson said. &8220;The last peak in juvenile crime was in the early 90s, and that was much more significant that what we are looking at now.&8221;

And juvenile crime is no different than adult crime, he said; when one is up, so is the other.

&8220;There&8217;s no magic line to why a 16-year-old would do something a 19-year-old wouldn&8217;t,&8221; he said.

Uncontrollable factors contribute to crime across the board, too.

&8220;It&8217;s the state of the economy,&8221; he said. &8220;When things are going well, when there&8217;s hope in the air, crime seems to wane some.&8221;

The most frequent offenses for juveniles in Adams County are fights and disturbances, at school or elsewhere, Hudson said. Shoplifting is pretty common, and sometimes teens are involved in such crimes with adults.

There was a flurry of burglaries in the fall involving juveniles that are still working through the court system.

&8220;One common element, when it&8217;s done it&8217;s not done by individuals, its done in groups,&8221; Hudson said.

Despite the outside factors of economy and personality conflicts, youth court&8217;s role is to correct the problem.

&8220;We discern what the problem is, get reports from school, the community, counselors, and we will craft a response to that person&8217;s behavior based on a case by case analysis,&8221; he said.

&8220;We don&8217;t want them to continue to develop a history where they are going to continue to break the law.&8221;

And the only way out of AOP is to demonstrate a change in behaviors, he said.